​James Brush, SP4
US Army
Manhattan District Project
Los Alamos, NM  ’43-‘46

 
James Brush was born in Washington, DC in 1924.  Jim grew up an only child and after graduating from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1942 he enrolled in MIT.   After completing one semester he was called to active duty.  Jim recalled an entire group of students was gathered in an auditorium at MIT and the entire group was "sworn in" by the Army in March of 1943.  He was sent to the Citadel in Charleston, SC. for basic training.  From there he spent the next year and a half in Specialized Army Training at Rutgers University.  He was part of a group of approximately 300 that attended a variety of engineering classes.  “After each 3 month period the top achievers stayed on, and the others were sent to the front line as casual replacements”.  When the training was complete, Jim was one of the very few remaining.  In January of 1945 Jim was sent to the Los Alamos Laboratory, in Los Alamos, NM. 
 
Jim was part of the Manhattan Project, headed by Robert Oppenheimer.  The Manhattan Project was a top-secret government research project.  There Jim worked on the development of the world’s first atomic bomb.  Much of the work on the Manhattan Project was very compartmentalized.  Jim’s area of focus was the development of the timing for the firing mechanisms.  Jim came to realize he was “among some very high priced and highly talented physicists”.  He also remembered the machinist from Chicago that were a rough and tumble bunch but very talented. 
 
In July of 1945 the test device known as “Gadget” was complete and ready for final testing.  When the construction of the Trinity Test site was complete, they conducted the test on July 16, 1945, at 5:30 am.  On the day of the test Jim was assigned guard duty out in the desert, several miles away from the Trinity test site.  He was instructed to lie down and cover his eyes with his arm.  Jim was responsible to alert the local sheep ranchers if the radiation cloud drifted in the wrong direction.  You guessed right…there was no radiation protection given to him nor anyone else.
 
The test was a success and that lead to the development of the two nuclear bombs known as Fat Man and Little Boy.  Little Boy was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6th 1945.  When the Japanese refused to surrender, Fat Man was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on August 9th.  The Japanese surrender on August 14th bringing an end to World War II.


Jim remained at Los Alamos until February of 1946 when he was discharged.  After he was discharged, he returned to MIT and competed his degree in electronic engineering. He went on to work at the Navy Sea Systems Command developing and managing programs that provided electronic equipment for US Naval ships.   
 
Jim is married to Evie and they live in Mills River, N.C.  They have 4 children, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.  One of Jim’s hobbies is genealogy and he has traced his roots back to the Mayflower.  

Jim was interviewed by his stepdaughter for a college paper she was working on.  She asked him what it felt like to be an only child, 18 years old and the whole world at war.  His response was that it was his patriotic duty to enlist and serve his country.  He never gave it a second thought.

Jim was given a certificate signed by the Secretary of War Henry Stimson in August of 1945.  The certificate reads, “This is to certify that James W. Brush, University of California, has participated in work essential to the production of the Atomic Bomb, thereby contributing to the successful conclusion of World War II.
 
Thank you, Jim, for your work in bringing an end to a long war that surely would have gone on longer without your efforts.  Jim, you helped save the world from true evil.